Evening July 28th, 2014 Meredith is on her blankets playing. For July Birthday Shirley brought a number of helium balloons in the house. Now Meredith is fascinated by the balloons. She will pull on the ribbon tied to a balloon and vigorously rattle the balloon. Of course the sound and the movement of the balloons bring out giggles and shrieks of amusement from Meredith. This keeps her occupied for a few minutes then she plays with something else on the blankets. Soon though, she discovers the balloons once again and the giggles and laughs rise up in the house bouncing off the walls and bringing happiness to her and myself. My days with Meredith are filled with schedules of eating, sleeping, and playing. Of course the teacher in me looks for every little sign of learning. Meredith can roll over on her stomach and also roll from her stomach to her back. She has not shown much interest in moving around in any other way, like crawling or scooting on her stomach. She will scoot on her back using her legs to propel herself with no specific direction in mind. What I do see is a good amount of arm and hand development. Her fingers work to grasp and turn, flip and roll toys. She is developing the ability to use fingers together to manipulate an object, all the time with a running commentary of sounds and shrieks of delight. Now that we are deep into the summer, I don’t take Meredith out in the stroller. The humidity and the heat even at nine o’clock is more than I want to expose her too right now. Meredith is eight months old. I might be a bit over protective but if it feels to warm to me after twenty or thirty minutes of walking, then I know it is too warm for Meredith. When we have a thunderstorm pass through sometimes the afternoons are cool immediately after the rain, even then the humidity makes the atmosphere feel warmer than it might actually be outside. I’ve started exercising again, going to a local fitness center and starting the routine I had when I retired from teaching. I had my weight down, my blood pressure down, and I felt better. I want to feel better, not that I feel bad. I just want to keep my weight under control and get my rest again. For months I have had an up and down attempt at getting sleep and going to bed at a decent hour. As I begin to get my mind back and see a bit further than my own needs, I need to become more involved in my own health. How I do that, reengaging in the world and my life, is a bit of an exercise in patience. Patience with myself and patience with how much I take on each day. Meredith has been fussy today. I am pretty sure it has to do with her teeth that are trying to emerge. When she is like this it takes more of my time to keep her content and secure. She fusses a lot more and looks for attention. I give her attention, but I try not to hold her the entire time. She will play a while then fuss for some attention. Sometimes I can encourage her to play and she will play on her own. Other times it is not going to work and I need to give her my attention. Meredith is almost always happy and playful, so when she is feeling a bit under the weather she should have some attention and care. It’s only right and natural. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5: 22-23 Everything I am trying to do is to help my mind, my heart, and especially my spirit. Each of these human traits comes to us through the Holy Spirit, through the goodness found in the spirit of others, through the understanding of who is first in my life. Moving forward will happen if I have my arms open and waiting, my spirit open and willing to let the Lord shape me, change me, and help me. The verse says the fruit of the spirit. That means the spirit has to be in me. How does that happen? I accept God’s will and grace. How do I do that? That is not as complicated as it might seem. I have to accept Christ as part of my life. When I do that the spirit will be with me even if I don’t realize it or feel it. That’s because like anything else I become more aware of and more able to do I have to practice listening to the spirit. How do I know that? I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— Romans 9: 1 My conscience will bear out what I need to do. The conscience does much more than tell me what is right or what is wrong. It shows me the path I need to take. I am learning that now, I am moving forward. The way I do all this is to read the bible, study it find out what is behind the verse I read. If I do that I believe everything will come together. The thing I don’t know is God’s timing. I do know that some of my healing depends on how open I am. So you see, it is a circle of faith, spirit, healing and faith. God is good. Papi
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 21:12:21 +0000
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